FOR OVER 150 YEARS, Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc has been the muse of many illustrious artists and writers. Slim Aarons famously photographed the turquoise pool, Pablo Picasso sketched guests sporting nothing but bronzed tans, and author F Scott Fitzgerald immortalised the Napoleon III-style building and its gardens in his novel Tender is the Night. More than a holiday resort, the seaside hotel is a hallowed playground for celebs, politicians, royalty and travellers who wouldn’t dream of spending their summers anywhere else.
Before high society descended upon her pine tree-lined shore, the hotel was established as a writer’s retreat called Villa Soleil by French journalist Hippolyte de Villemessant in 1870. It was a secluded hideaway for the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and yes, F Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote, “On the…
